Page 206 of Whispers of Wisteria
Minutes must have passed before I sat up, grabbed the rabbit from my bedside table drawer, and hugged it close to my chest.
It was… lonely.
“Just how long do you plan on lying around?”
I blinked, unsure that I’d heard anything at all, and looked up through the hair that had fallen over my face.
I wasn’t alone after all. Uncle Caleb had seated his ghostly self on my pink-cushioned window seat. He wasn’t looking at me, though. His focus was somewhere outside my window.
Why was he angry?
I wanted to ask, but when I opened my mouth, I still couldn’t speak.
“They had a big argument about it earlier today—Abigail, Jonathon, the others. You missed it.” he said conversationally. “They’ve decided to take you toWhisperwind.”
What?
I pulled back, heart racing, and drew further into myself.
“Can you blame them?” he asked. “You look like you’re about to disappear.”
My throat was dry, and I swallowed.
I didn’t know how to deal with this.
Uncle Caleb always had less than pleasant things to say to me on a normal day, and right now, things were far from normal.
“That’s to be expected, I guess,” he continued. He finally looked at me, and the chill in the air deepened. “Although my instincts are usually right. I thought I understood.”
I squeezed my knees closer to my chest. I doubted his ‘instincts’ had anything positive to say.
“You have no training, no education, and no idea what it means to be fae,” he said bitingly. But then he added, his tone softening just a little, “That’s not your fault. Maybe youshouldgo toWhisperwind. But—”
I flinched, but he pretended not to see.
“—it won’t mean anything if you’re not willing to fight for who you are,” he added.
I stared at the floor.
But I didn’t know what that was.
“Don’t start crying,” he said. “That’s not Mu. That’s fear talking.”
I blinked at him, and my grip loosened.
“I—” I whispered, my voice scratchy. “I don’t know how to be him.”
Uncle Caleb tilted his head. “There’s nothing to ‘be.’ You are.”
“But…” I looked down at my knees and bit my lip.
“What?” he asked.
“What if the fae don’t want me?” I asked, picking at the edge of my sheet. “I’m—I’m nothing like what they’d expect, right?”
Uncle Caleb was quiet for a moment, and I peeked at him. He was frowning at me.
“Declan destroyed the room,” he said.
